Some types of information are much better presented in tables rather than as running text. You should consider presenting any numerical information, or lists, in table format. Tables are easily created and edited, and are ideal for creating a wide range of forms and reports.
This chapter shows you how to:
The information in this section can also be applied to designing spreadsheet documents. Simply select the area of spreadsheet you want to format, and add grids, borders and backgrounds as if it were a table.
Tables are a way of presenting information which is neat and easily understandable. Transport timetable information and the ingredients in a recipe are two everyday examples of information which can be presented in tables. Forms such as software registration cards or school worksheets can also be created as tables.
Tables can range from a simple two-column list, to large and detailed documents.
Some basic terms are used within Fireworkz and throughout the computer world to refer to the parts which make up a table. They are the same as the words used to describe the content of a spreadsheet. These terms are used throughout this chapter.
A table is made up of vertical columns and horizontal rows. The intersections of these are called cells, and this is where you enter your text or data.
Cells can be shown more clearly by a grid, a pattern of lines showing the boundary between each row and column. Each cell can also have its own border, and cells can be given a background colour.
Tables are easily added to any Fireworkz document. You can add tables to both letter and worksheet documents.
To add a table to a document:
You can now go on to edit and customise your table. See Editing table layouts.
Editing table layouts is made easy by Fireworkz. Most changes can be made by selecting the part of the table you want to change, and dragging it to the new size in the ruler.
If it is not already displayed, you should switch on the Side ruler in the View control dialogue box. This makes it much easier to resize rows.
The cell layout for each table is defined in the corresponding style .TableN which is automatically created when you add a table to your document. These are the default table settings, which you will probably want to alter:
You should make any changes which you want to apply to the whole table by altering the settings in the ruler when no area of the table is selected.
The type style, border, colours and the grid are altered using the Style dialogue box by editing the appropriate table style or creating new styles and applying them to the table.
You may wish to remove column boundaries in some rows of your table, perhaps because a row is being used as a heading or break in the table. The method described here is one way to do this: you could also straddle the two cells.
There is a simple and convenient way to merge a pair of cells in a row. This is called straddling. To do this:
There are two options for adding extra rows and columns to a table. You may either insert additional rows and columns at a point within the table, or add rows and columns to the end of an existing table.
To insert extra rows within a table:
To insert extra columns within a table:
To add rows to the bottom of a table:
To add columns to the right of a table:
To remove a row or column from the table:
Tables are usually created with all their columns of equal width. However, you may need one or more columns to be wider than the others. For example, if you made a table to display students marks in a series of tests, you would need a wide column for their names and narrower columns for the marks.
To change column width:
You can change the width of part of a column, by selecting only those cells whose width you want to change and following the process outlined above.
You can alter column widths to reposition the table on the page. Tables automatically start in the second column. By adjusting the width of the first (leftmost) column on the page, you can align your table with your text or margins.
The process for changing row height is exactly like that for changing columns, but uses the side ruler.
However the height of the entire row will change; you cannot select part of a row and change its height.
The Auto Width and Auto Height facilities make it possible to make columns and rows exactly the right width to contain their largest member. Using this facility allows you to tidy up your table.
To use Auto Width:
The process for setting automatic row height is identical but you should select a row and double-click on its marker. This effectively clears the fixed row height setting attached to a row, so that the row height will alter automatically to track the tallest paragraph in the row.
Most tables are easier to read if there is a pattern of lines, or grid, dividing the columns and rows. Fireworkz enables you to design the grid containing the information in your table using the Box editor and the Style editor.
The grid exists in an space between each cell. Each cell also has a border, which is its boundary. You can highlight cells, columns and rows by displaying the border. Either create a style, based on the table style, or apply an effect to the cells you want to change.
The default style for tables is a black grid surrounding every cell.
The example and template files in the Examples directory contain several different table styles which you can use in your own document.
Adding a background colour to a row or column is a good way of emphasising it. Background colours are also added using either the Style editor or the Effects command.
To add a background colour to a table style:
Table colour
.
Table colour
style to it.As the finishing touch to your table or form you may want to add a border or box around some areas of your page.
You may add an external box or internal grid lines to areas of cells or paragraphs. You can apply a box style to individual cells, groups of cells, whole tables or whole documents.
Boxes are external lines around a rectangular group of cells or paragraphs.
There are several different line styles available for drawing boxes. These are shown in the Line style section of the Box dialogue box. They are:
The width of lines used in boxes is based on the width of line set in the Grid width setting of the Paper dialogue box. The thin and dotted lines are the same as this width, the narrow line half of this width and the thick line twice this width.
Change the setting of the grid width to the width you want in points. If you do this, and make the measurement much larger, you should check the text at the beginning and end of paragraphs; a large grid width setting could cut into the tops and bottoms of letters if there is insufficient paragraph spacing to cover the grid width.
If you have large text in shallow paragraphs or rows, you may occasionally find that the grid is drawn over the tops or bottoms of the letters, which you will see as the tops or bottoms of letters being clipped off. If you have no grid displayed this will manifest itself as the top of the first or bottom of the last lines in paragraphs being missing. This problem usually appears on screen.
There are two possible solutions to this problem if it arises:
To add a box:
You can add grid lines to any set of selected cells or paragraphs using the Box dialogue box. The line styles available for grid lines are the same as for boxes.
To do this:
When you draw a box around a group of cells, it is based on the positioning of the grid between the cells and their neighbours.
If you are creating a complex document, where the width of columns varies as tables and text appear in the document, you may encounter some problems with the drawing of boxes.
The simple solution to this is to keep an extra row in the same column format as the table above and below the table. These act as a buffer between the table and the rest of the document and ensure that its box is always displayed and printed correctly.
You should not encounter this problem where tables are added to documents where the surrounding column is the full width of the page; it only occurs when tables are embedded in worksheet type documents with variable column widths.
There are two options for removing boxes, borders and grid lines from tables or from areas within tables.
You can use the Regions editor to remove grids and boxes from your documents. You can do this because grids, boxes and so on are applied to the document as effects, and are therefore controlled by the Regions editor.
If you use the Regions editor to remove a region, it will remove the whole of that grid or box. To do this:
A much more flexible option for editing the grids and boxes in tables or elsewhere in documents is to use the transparent/invisible line facility in the Box editor.
To type directly into a table, place the caret in the cell you want to type in and enter your text. This will enter the information as text.
You may enter data into tables in Fireworkz as data, via the editing line. This makes the data live and enables you to perform calculations upon it. To enter live data in a cell:
Text will appear in the main text style of your document, with the margins defined in the Table style, but you can modify that style to suit.
Useful points to consider are:
Grid patterns and background colours are also defined as styles. Remember that you can apply more than one style to an area if different attributes are set in each style.
You should define grids and background colours as separate styles to the main table style you are using for the table. This makes it much easier to change the look of the table without altering the basic way it is laid out.
Rather than type your data directly into the table, you may want to import the data from another source and place it directly in the cells of a table.
Data for import should be in CSV format.
Drag the CSV file icon on to the document window, or on Windows, choose
from the menu.A dialogue box will appear presenting the following options:
If you added the file as a table, use the Style editor to turn grid lines and background colours on or off as required.
Edit the table layout in the usual way.